Youth Football Plays

Essential Youth Football Plays

If you recently visited our site, you know that we published a blog post concerning Youth Football Formations. In that post we mentioned that one of the most queried youth football topics according to google is football formations and that the number of searches tends to hit their peak in September when we believe many youth football coaches are frantically searching for magic football plays. Though it certainly isn’t magic, we believe Power Running plays along with a complementary play like Counter are football plays that should be in every youth offensive playbook. The idea behind the Power Running play is pretty simple. The offensive line on the play side of the line (side of the offensive line the ball is being run to) blocks down towards the Center and a running back kicks out or blocks the first defender on the line of scrimmage outside the gap or hole that the ball is being run to. With the exception of the Guard, the offensive line on the back side of the line (side of the offensive line opposite of where the ball is being run to) seals off any penetration to their inside gap. The back side Guard pulls to the play side behind the offensive line and up into the gap or hole the ball is being run to looking for a different colored jersey to block usually a linebacker.

Something that you may notice right away is that the play side Tackle is not blocking down towards the Center. As we mentioned earlier, a Power Running play typically has everyone on the play side of the offensive line blocking down. If we were to do that, the X Tight End would end up with a one on one block on the Defensive Tackle. Since many of us coach in youth football leagues where an eligible receiver has to be under a certain weight, the Tight End many times will be at disadvantage having to block a much larger player by themselves. We account for that by tweaking our play side Tackle’s Power blocking rule such that they will form a double team on the Defensive Tackle.

Complementary Football Plays

As mentioned earlier, we believe complementary plays to the Power Running play are football plays that should be in every offensive playbook. By complementary we mean one that starts off looking like a Power Running play, but ends up attacking a different part of the field. Keeping with Coach Eien’s I Back Toss, a good example of a complementary play is the I Back Counter.

I Back Toss Counter Play

The I Back Counter play starts out looking very much like the I Back Toss with the Quarterback and Tailback faking the Toss. The Fullback steps to the back side as if he is going to execute his Toss kick out block, but instead comes under the Quarterback to the play side hole or gap the ball is being run to looking for different colored jersey to block. The Wing or Z player comes underneath the Quarterback receiving a hand off and then running inside the kick out block of the Pulling back side Guard. Though this play is considered a Counter play, it is effectively a Power play with some misdirection built-in.

Below are the blocking rules that make up our Counter scheme:

Back side Tight End – G.O.D.

Back side Tackle – G.O.D.

Back side Guard – Pull (Kick Out)

Center – M.O.M.A. (Man On, Man Away)

Play side Guard – G.O.D.

Play side Tackle – G.O.O.D (Gap, On, Outside, Down)

Play side Tight End – G.O.D.

Here is the I Back Counter play in action:

Complementary plays are essential football plays as they allow you to punish the defense when they start committing to stopping your Power Running play.